1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus such as a printer or image forming apparatus that can employ a tray loaded with a recording material.
2. Related Background Art
Various recording materials have been proposed for recording by a recording apparatus such as a printer or image forming apparatus. Among those, there are small-sized, thick, recording materials like a CD-R, a DVD, and a card (hereinafter collectively referred to as CD (compact disc)). In current general recording apparatuses, the use of a transport path for a single sheet of paper in recording on such a recording material such as a CD is likely to cause inconveniences including poor transportation performance and scarring which are due to high rigidity of the CD and, in worst cases, the CD cannot be transported at all because the distance between transport rollers is too narrow for the CD. Accordingly, when transporting a small-sized, thick, recording material such as a CD, the recording material is put on a tray and the tray is transported through a path different from the transport path for a single sheet of paper.
In using the above tray, which is thicker than a general, single sheet of paper, it is necessary to put a fair amount of considerations on insertion of the tray into a transport roller pair, the nipping of the tray by the transport roller pair, appropriateness of the gap between recording means (recording head) and the recording material, and the like. One measure to meet the need is to provide the recording apparatus with an operation lever so that the pressure on the transport rollers and other transport members is released in conjunction with the motion of the operation lever. In this case, a user positions the tray by inserting the tray until it reaches a given position, and operates the operation lever to set the transport members into the pressured state once more. Then the user operates the operation lever to raise a carriage mounted with the recording head to a level that provides a proper gap between the recording material and the recording head.
In recording (printing) on such a recording material as a CD, the position of the CD or such recording material may not be detected or a sensor mounted on a carriage may be used to directly detect the position of a while portion in a recordable range of the CD. When detection of the position of the recording material is not included, an image may be recorded in a wrong portion of the CD or such recording material and therefore a user has to adjust the recording apparatus by running an application program or the like on a personal computer. For that reason, using a sensor (e.g., tray position detection sensor) mounted on a carriage to detect the position of a recording material for recording has lately become a frequently employed method.
However, the method which uses a sensor mounted on a carriage to detect the position of such a recording material such as a CD needs the sensor and a recording head which is recording means to be in their correct positions in order to record at the right point on the recording material. This means that the sensor has to be attached with accuracy and, to improve the accuracy, the parts have to have shapes and dimensions of improved precision and have to be assembled with extreme accuracy. As a result, the cost is increased.